Mbeki upbeat after Zimbabwe talks

President Mbeki has been tasked to seek an end to the Zimbabwe crisis

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki says he is "very confident" that mediation will produce a solution for Zimbabwe's political crisis.
He was speaking after talks with President Robert Mugabe and opposition officials in the Zimbabwean capital.

There has been a virtual news blackout around the South African-mediated talks but sources suggest they have agreed four of the five points on the agenda.

The sticking point is the last issue - the political climate.

Mr Mbeki stopped off in Harare on his way to the Commonwealth summit in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to meet both sides.

He told reporters he had visited "to see the president, and the leadership of the MDC [opposition Movement for Democratic Change], so we can reflect on where we are and to report to them as facilitator how the talks have gone."

Mr Mbeki, who has been tasked by the Southern Africa Development Community with helping to find a solution to Zimbabwe's political crisis, said the mediated talks were "going well".

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has also gone to Kampala to lobby Commonwealth leaders on the Zimbabwe issue.